Austin Dillon climbs into the No. 3 made famous by seven-time Cup champion Dale Earnhardt. Dillon drives the number on the Nationwide Series. / Todd Warshaw, Getty Images for NASCAR

by Dustin Long, Special for USA TODAY Sports

by Dustin Long, Special for USA TODAY Sports

AVONDALE, Ariz. -- Austin Dillon will make his Daytona 500 debut next year, as he prepares for a full-time run in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series in 2014.

Richard Childress Racing announced Friday that Dillon will drive a No. 33 Chevrolet sponsored by Honey Nut Cheerios. Dillon has competed in two Cup races.

Dillon is scheduled to run about six Cup races along with a full-time Nationwide schedule. Those races have not yet been set. His younger brother, Ty, is scheduled to run one Cup race next year.

"I'm smiling about the boys getting ready to go Cup racing next year,'' car owner Richard Childress said of his grandchildren.

Dillon's focus is on this year's Nationwide title. He enters this weekend at Phoenix in third place, 21 points behind co-leaders Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and teammate Elliott Sadler.

"For us, it's just go,'' Dillon said. "We've got to win the race. Win this race and the next one to give us that championship. I don't know if it's desperation. I think it's more like just going all out and taking chances.''

When Dillon runs at Daytona next year, he will not be in the No. 3 Cup car but that could change when he makes his move full-time to Cup after next year.

Childress says he's more comfortable with Dillon running the No. 3 car -- made famous by seven-time Cup champion Dale Earnhardt -- in Cup because of the "overwhelming'' fan response he's received.

The No. 3 has not run in Cup since Earnhardt's fatal crash in 2001.

"It's not going to be popular with everybody, but so many of the fans after seeing it on (Dillon's Nationwide car) love it and asked for it back,'' Childress said Friday morning at Phoenix International Raceway. "It brings back the memories of Dale.

"I gave it a lot of thought. The reason I would even consider it is because (Dillon) is family. We'd never run the 3 with anybody but Austin or Ty or an Earnhardt. I know Earnhardt would have loved to have seen him in it.''

Austin Dillon said one of his earliest memories of the Daytona 500 was going to Victory Lane after Earnhardt won the 1998 Daytona 500.

"I do remember getting grabbed up by grandmother and taken to Victory Lane and getting to do the 'hat dance,' '' said Dillon, who was 7 at the time, of the numerous photos with different sponsors' hats after a win. "That was just one of the coolest feelings. I always thought it would be really cool to do this every weekend.''